I completely missed that there were no Os or Cs in any of the non-theme clues. THAT'S as big a challenge as creating the delightful grid. I'm floored.
Remember a few days ago, I said that if a puzzle had too much going on, the payoff had better be worth it? Here's that puzzle. I got some of the upper theme answers without knowing why. With trick puzzles like these, I just plunk in what's obviously the answer with a few letters remaining, and move on. I completed, for example, YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS with about half the letters, all the while not knowing why it matched [Wild cats]. When LATE NIGHT was the answer for [Arsenic's realm, in years past], I realized they really mean Arsenio, and I had to change all the C's in the theme clues to O's. But I still didn't know why. And then there was the matter of the three BLOCKs. Obviously, here we had something different: a two-part, slash-separated clue for each. The dark squares seemed to be BLOCKs, and as such, the answer pairs, such as ICE BLOCK and BLOCKers, solved the clues. But why? You had to look at the grid once all of that was filled in (or if solving electronically, wait for the animation). The big C in the middle becomes an O with the three BLOCK rebuses returning to actual BLOCKs, as they were in the clue. (The only thing I wonder is how many solvers know that black grid squares are called BLOCKs.) Or, of course, you can look at 113A. And for the cherry on top, there are no C's in any of the clues except those that have to change, and no O's except those in your head after you make the C-to-O changes. This puzzle might be a Puzzle of the Year contender, IMHO.
@Steve L One more that I just noticed. Once the animation closes the blocks, the six three-letter words on each side of the blocks are common crossword answers
@Steve L Seems like you and me solved the same puzz! Ditto and amen to your writeup!
@Steve L Additional bonus: SCATTER crosses with Wild oats
What a magnificent masterpiece of a puzzle. Figured out the theme halfway through, only to get stuck on the blocks in the middle. Then the elusive a-ha! moment. This one should be in a crossword museum. Quick, someone build one!
@Jacqueline A Crossword museum should require one to walk around it at least once before getting properly into it. It should be in Reno, Eire, Mali or Ames. Rita Ora and Yoko Ono to open it. What am I missing?
@Jacqueline Ha! I imagine the Rebus collection will be in the basement, crammed with every imaginable solving device. 😉
Omg you guys I just got my first gold star for a Sunday crossword!!! Did I need to read the article? Of course I did! Did I Google a few things? Yes for sure. But did I use auto check or any similar hints? No I did not! Woohoo! Getting better at this crossword thing.
@Nancy If you were my niece I'd beam at you.
@Nancy You do you! When I first started out, i googled things I didn't know, and actually learned more that way. I picked up shows I wouldn't have otherwise watched (Mr robot), and even googled MADAME X, which made it all the better when I saw the painting in person last year. Alas, I am now a slave to the streak and time clock. But I long for those days where I would google anything googleable and actually was all the smarter for it.
Congratulations Rachel and Adam on a fun puzzle! Rachel’s dad joined in on the fill to make finding the theme easier (her creativity and brilliance is inherited from a distinct side of her lineage). The rebus was a nice aha moment, and having the ability to text Rachel a copy of the puzzle to find my typo (in awayteam) was a kind Mother’s Day gift. Hope you all have a wonderful day!
@Rachel's Mom Hi Rachel's Mom Nice to see you. Enjoy your day.
Good morning, Rachel's Mom! I wonder if we'll be joined later by Adam's Wife and Children? Bring your family to work day?
@Rachel's Mom Don't sell yourself short Mom. I'm sure you're just as creative as the OLDBLOCK 😀 Happy Day!
@Rachel's Mom, I was wondering if you might comment today. Glad to see you here! Have a Happy Mother’s Day!!! 💐
@Rachel's Mom Happy Mother’s day, Rachel’s mom! I am sure you’re very proud! Dr Fabi also has the Atlantic Sunday puzzle today!
@Rachel's Mom Happy Mothering Sunday. Congrats to you and all parents who can rejoice with such wonderfully creative sprogs!* *applies to pretty much everything in life if you look with an open heart.
This gets my vote for Sunday POY to date. Not just the multi-layered theme, which was delicious, but the cluing and fill were extra good. Also appreciated the sideways shoutout to Walter Mosley (“Devil in a Blue Dress”). Blessed are Rachel and Adam!
@Puzzlemucker, my thoughts exactly. A real contender. And had a good helping of chemistry related themes, I believe from one of Rachel Fabi's other lives.
@Puzzlemucker Agree! POW if ever there was one! A rare gem with artful cluing, trenchant filling, and fluid construction. Well worth the consternation!
Wow, this is crazy clever! I just love a puzzle where you have to play with the clues in order to make sense of the answers. The debut of ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, with the genius clue [Chic venue that features great bands] which becomes [Ohio venue …. ] after closing the loops is the bomb! All those clues without a single “O” blows my mind. And that central BLOCK is just genius. Congratulations, Rachel and Adam. Outstanding job!
@Anita On my first pass when I read [Chic venue that features great bands], all I could think was - had Nile Rodgers opened an event space? Because I wouldn't put it past him! Of course that was before I caught on to the theme. Great clue!
AWOL and desertion are not synonyms. A soldier who is AWOL is simply not at his place of duty. A deserter is an absentee who intends to remain absent *permanently.* Each has its own article in the UCMJ: desertion comes under Article 85, AWOL under Article 86. I prepared the court-martial charge sheet for one soldier who was AWOL for five minutes — he missed bed check — and I know of a case of one absentee who was tried and acquitted of a charge of desertion after an absence of 20 years.
Court-martial charge sheet for a missed bed check, Fact Boy? I hope that was resolved with, at most, an Article 15.
@Fact Boy Is AWOL a lesser included offense? Such that a deserter is AWOL, but going AWOL doesn’t always amount to desertion.
@Fact Boy Thank you for taking the time to write this up. I spotted that slight inaccuracy as well, and opted not to bring it to light. Great story. There are a lot worse places to be stuck in besides Lawton Oklahoma, but I can't think of any. Maybe Ft Puke (oops, Polk)? I'd been AWOL one lonnng weekend during my first enlistment back in 1977 from Ft Ord. I was an 11B at the time, and our reasoning was, "What're they gonna do to us, change our MOS to 11B and put us in the Infantry?" Nevertheless, California Jam II was awesome, from what I could remember.
@Fact Boy Of course you are correct about AWOL and desertion being distinct crimes in the UCMJ, but as used in the clue, I read “deserters” as a generic term for something like “people who wrongfully abandon their duties”, rather than a reference to “people who have committed the crime of ‘desertion’, as defined in the UCMJ”. Personally, I assumed the clue writer was aware of the distinction between AWOL and desertion, and did that on purpose…
"When I draw circles, sometimes I worry they'll gain a dimension." "Oh, you have nothing to sphere." (I knew I'd get a round to posting this.)
@Mike An arc-ane pun with global force. I'm glad to see it atlas!
@Mike Abs-orbed elsewhere?
@Mike And we know what happens if they gain a dimension one more time.
Blessed are the fantastic. There, I just used an adnoun. But in honor of Rachel and Adam’s amazing puzzle, they deserve their own brand new adnoun, thus: Blessed are the fantastio.
Clever, but not fun. A long slog not getting the full schtick 'til reading the explanation, but still muddling along with the fill (no look-ups). Meh.
@Crazy Cat Lady No on my radar at all,,,ugh Also no italics,probably would not have helped anyway. Double meh…
Tedious & tiresome. Glad I solved it on Saturday night.
@R.J. Smith May I ask why, as your seems to be in the minority?
one of those that you need ESP to figure out what the heck the constructor is up to. This would have been impossible to solve without the worplay column. That makes it less than wonderful to solve but in this case even after reading the wordplay I was left wondering...what?
@Asher I’m by no means a crossword genius like some of the folks here, but I managed to figure it out without any help, thanks largely to 25A… cutlets. It was a clever theme!
@Asher To my knowledge, I do not have ESP, and yet I solved it in less than half my average time, with no outside help. So it seems maybe your criticism pertains to only you?
@Asher “This would have been impossible to solve without the worplay column.” Happy trolling, Asher…
I have no idea what's going on and I CBA to find out. I'm leaving the puzzle unfinished and gladly moving on.
@Andrzej Dude...at least scan the comments. It's pretty clever, if nothing else.
@Andrzej Knowing your style and appreciation of cleverness, I suggest you give this one another go, because it is masterfully done at many levels.
@Andrzej You have a Collective Bargainjng Agreement that says you don’t have to finish puzzles you don’t want to?
Very clever. Maybe its my mental blocks, but I did not enjoy this one.
A tour de force! When answers don't make sense, I just keep going knowing it will all come together. When I got to the revealer, I finally heard that little voice in the back of my head reminding me that when all else fails, look at the clues. With that part taken care of, seeing my finished grid with BLOCK filled in as a rebus just didn't add up. What was I miissing? Being not particularly observant when it comes to grid art, the clocked ticked away as I stared and tried to make sense of it. Reading the revealer one more time and holding my paper at arms length let me see what I needed to do. Finding out when I read the column that there were no other O's or C's in the clues blew my mind. As far as POY goes, this is the one to top. This has been a terrific Friday, Saturday, Sunday run. Thank you Rachel and Adam!
@Nancy J. I too fill in themers and keep going until they click (or not), and today like Caitlin the proverbial penny dropped with SPACE INVADERS. As I went back to reexamine some I hadn't completed, I idly thought - wow, it'd be even more next-level if the C letters in the answers could be swapped for O's and still form actual words (like that C in SPACE). It took reading the column to see the real genius of *no other O's or C's in any other clues*. Yes, mind blown!! Truly next-level.
If anyone needs me, I will be spending the next few hours just staring contentedly at the completed crossword, and savoring the dopamine high generated by one of the finest AHA! moments that I've seen in a crossword grid in a long time. Thank you, Rachel and Adam!!!
Today's puzzle was truly * chef's kiss * Had a huge aha moment when I finally figured out the rebus. This weekend ends with the best Friday - Saturday - Sunday trio that I can remember from the past few years.
Quite the tag team for a tricky Sunday! Quite a bit to C here; I hope people are Open to it (and don't consider it ANTIART). I'm glad you're not the AWAYTEAM, Rachel and Adam. NOICE!
This was very cleverly constructed. I got the theme midway through the puzzle so the rest of the theme entries were straightforward. But the center block rebus tripped me up as I didn’t expect yet another gimmick and with no rebuses anywhere else. The clue with a “/“ representing two answers with a shared “block” was yet another gimmick. In the end, this felt a bit too gimmicky to me. And all those constraints made the fill tedious (looking at you, OHO, OH WOW, DIF, LILOLME, HIHO, GRR, EHH, TSKED, EWS). Not enjoyable for me. Oh well, there is always tomorrow…
I almost protested at “Alfa,” but thankfully did a little research. I did not know “alfa” was acceptable (or even preferred) in lieu of “alpha” in the NATO alphabet. Learn something new every day (and every puzzle).
Alpha has never been in the NATO alphabet, as "ph" pronounced as "f" isn't a thing in most languages. It's always been Alfa. Similarly Juliett - two Ts, is used as otherwise some users will elide the final T. NATO isn't the only phonetic alphabets around. Others use different words, and may have included Alpha
Ged, In the U.S. Army, stateside anyway, we used Alpha.
@Dean Thanks for explaining this one, I came here to find out what that was!
My first ever comment to this column to say “bravo” to the constructors. Absolutely brilliant - definite puzzle of the year so far.
@Steve comes after ALFA 😀
Hate to be a naysayer but this puzzle was overly complex and not much fun for me. Even when I figured out some of the needlessly complicated clues, like the blocks, I felt annoyance rather than pleasure. Just my opinion, thanks anyway!
@Nancy Bea my experience was the opposite of yours, but I wanted to say that I respect how you expressed your opinion. Have a great day!
Any one else have "YOUTHFUL DNA SECRETIONS"? I had to look up CHEADLE to fix that, my only Googling for this puzzle.
@Andrea I had SECRETIONS but wasn’t sure how to fill in the rest. Thank goodness it went a different direction!
@Andrea That's actually kind of hilarious, if not a bit icky!
@Andrea You mean they're not the same? :-D
Over the course of a year and change of hanging with you all I just have to say: if there is a better example of a dignified, gently acerbic, avuncular, succinct and balanced voice of reason on any internet forum than Barry Ancona's I would love for someone to provide a link to it.
@Matt Hear, hear! Understanding the essence of BA's ways is finding a guide and a teacher. He is, unequivocally, one of the unique treasures of this forum, and we're lucky to have him.
OHWOW indeed. A technical masterclass and a fantastic solving journey with each step bringing a new revelation, once you twigged the theme it was like seeing the stars come out as each gimmick fell into place. And writing all the filler clues without O's or C's is the kind of commitment to detail that marks a true artist.
Glad others like this. Cute enough in retrospect, but in my view the juice was not worth the squeeze on this one.
What a well-rounded (heh) puzzle with the right mix of doable clues, brand new clues and a unique theme that implements the best of what NYT crosswords offer - rebuses, themed clues and fun animations!
Happy music played, and I stared at this puppy for a *loooooong* time trying to make sense of the themers. Suddenly I figured I was overthinking it. Bam! UFC=UFO! Stellar. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms! And to those who are taking their mom to brunch today, and the long-distance phone callers just wanting to connect, and those that didn’t get to keep their mom for nearly long enough. And if you didn’t get the mom you deserved, I hope someone stepped in and rooted for you and made you feel loved and protected.
@CCNY Happy Mother's Day to you, CC! Thanks for sharing your maternal stories!
@CCNY I hope you won't mind me adding some love for those carrying the tremendous grief of being unable to become a mother, for whatever reasons. Mothers in our hearts, it's a tremendous sorrow to carry. Hoping you are having a wonderful Mother's Day!
I really thought this puzzle was a hot mess... just overly complex and gimmicky. Would have been nice to have a pleasant straight forward Mother's day morning solve with my coffee in bed. Kind of ruined the morning.
@Donna There are lots of publications, such as USA Today, that consistently offer “pleasant straight forward” puzzles, if that’s what you prefer.
@Donna Personally, I enjoy some word "chewelry" on a Sunday. Hope your day gets better:) Happy Mother's Day!
@Donna My mom said she loved this puzzle. Different strokes, I guess. Happy Mother's Day.
This was the best Sunday puzzle construction-wise I’ve played this year!
I needed help to CLOSE THE LOOP on this one, but “O” wow does it pay off when you “C” the clues transform from nonsensical to perfectly reasonable when you remove the BLOCKADE. Kudos!
A bit too clever for me, I solved in under my average time but it wasn’t enjoyable. On to tomorrow!
@John Exactly my experience. tc
Having never heard of CHEWELRY, I got to wondering why it was not spelled CHEWELLERY. After a little research I discovered that the spelling I had learned of "jewellery" aligns with the British spelling, while "jewelry" is the American spelling. Always happy to learn something new.
This theme was too tortuous, even tenuous, to be enjoyable for me, I'm afraid.
I simply love this puzzle. It had it all. I mean even Steve L. effused about this one, Puzzlemucker and Andrew from Ottawa were lured out of their caves, and the Lord proclaimed Oh Wow! P. O. double Y! Anyone else have WILDE before READE? Both are apropos surnames. The man had a number of youthful indiscretions after all. Love the retro-nerdiness of Dalek, chewelry, Ray Bans, Space Invaders and the underused sloshes, SD card, yutz, Fodor (I believe the Pulitzer-winning Native American novelist Momaday wrote Fodor's Guide to Indian America before he became famous), it was a joy to slosh my way through this puzzle.
@john ezra Unfortunately, there appear to be many indications that it's more accurate to say Wilde had indiscretions with youths.
Such fun! At the end I was wishing I could color in the three blocks and then they colored themselves in! So cool. As a kid who used to fill in all the o's and c's on a page when I was bored, this was very satisfying.
@Lpr And no O's or C's in any of the clues?!? 😲😲😲 that's a feat
So often when I get stuck, commenters here say the puzzle was too easy for them. Today, many said it was too convoluted, but it's my first gold star in awhile, and I wasuch quicker than my average (although I tend to take Sundays very leisurely, so that average should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt). All in all, I found this very clever. Cutlets lit the bulb over my head!
Finest Sunday puzzle in a very long time! Really brilliant construction and a very clever theme. Helped to know that black squares in crossword puzzles are called "blocks". Got the theme with "Arsenic's"-->"Arsenio's", and knowing the theme made the puzzle a lot easier to solve. Still took me 35 minutes, and I struggled a bit with CHEADLE and TSKED until I recalled DALEK. Having WHO directly above at 20A likely helped. What a run of fine puzzles Friday-Sunday. Thanks!
@Xword Junkie I saw the movie "Devil in a Blue Dress" many years ago, and knew that it starred Denzel Washington as Walter Mosley's noir detective Easy Rawlins. But neither "Denzel" nor "Washington" fit, and I didn't think that it was Denzel's "first star turn." It took me quite a while to remember that Don CHEADLE had a supporting role in that movie as Easy's excitable assistant, "Mouse" Alexander. "Star turn"? I guess that's a matter of opinion.
Another Sunday filled with tired, boring clues and a theme that exists solely to demonstrate how clever the constructors are.
@eric you may have misunderstood what this game is about
@eric I like to think the theme exists to demonstrate how clever I am!!
@eric If you didn't understand the theme you can just say so.
@eric I guess you'll be cancelling your subscription soon.
@eric i smart you smart everybody smart.
I consider myself a connoisseur and I was mostly confused by the theme. As is often the case when a joke has to be explained, I was less than impressed.
I wish I could BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK this puzzle from my memory.
Absolutely brilliant theme. Personal favorite: chic/Ohio. Oh, and I would have gone the rest of my life without realizing the depth of the constructors’ commitment to the gimmick if not for the comments here (such as Steve L’s). Thank you, Rachel and Adam!
I found this puzzle to be tough, but very clever and ultimately solve-able. It took me a bit longer than usual, but the payoff was well worth the extra effort. Over all, a highly satisfying bit of cruciverbalism.
Even after reading the write-up for this, I'm still not getting it- a little too convoluted for this over-tired Sunday head I guess. I did notice that the 'O' would have made more sense for Space Invaders and sensed there was something here. The 3 black dots/blocks did me in in the end. Off to some much needed rest.
Loved the trick today!! Got the middle section fairly early but took me until almost the end to fully “ccnnect the dcts” on the italicized clues. That was fun and a great aha moment….well done.
I'm relatively new around here. I filled in the whole puzzle--with some help. But if I have to go to the Wordplay column to figure out things after the music--then I think the puzzle is maybe a little too gimmicky for my taste. Cutlets? Arsenic late night? etc.
@lucky13 You will occasionally see some trickery (usually of the mild type) on Sundays, and Thursday is the main day for shenanigans and chicanery. When you're new to the crosswords, it's very helpful to read the Wordplay column, one of several helpful columns that appear at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/wordplay" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/column/wordplay</a>. In today's case, a C is unclosed circle (more or less). To fully understand the clues, you need to change those Cs to Os, "closing the loop" or "come full circle". So Arsenic becomes Arsenio (Hall, a former late night talk show host). The only Cs in the clues appear in the theme clues, and they all need to be changed to Os to get the correct answers. Rebuses (more than one letter in a square) can happen on any day, but they're not a usual occurrence, and there are articles that introduce them and how to enter them. Most of us who have been here a while enjoy the additional challenges of a puzzle that has its own rules every once in a while.